A couple of my neighbors have switched to DirecTV and I’m thinking of going that way myself. I would appreciate any inputs, pro or con, on this. Thanks in advance.
We switched from cable to DISH TV and we’re VERY happy with it. I honestly don’t think you’ll miss cable at all! Good luck to you!
For all the cable companies bitch about the signal going out with a dish, I had that happen maybe a half dozen times in 5 years of having satellite TV, always due to severe weather.
I’d take that any day over the shitty reception cable gets. Seems like every other channel is blurry, some so bad I honestly can’t tell what it going on.
I have DirecTV, and I think it sucks. It’s cheaper than cable, but the interface and the controller stink. I think it’s because I’m on an old system. Still, I’d rather have DirecTV. My friends have Dish Network and they get much better reception that I, where my signal goes out always at the beginning of a rain storm (sometimes, the local channels are ok, but anything about 200 is out). I’m planning on switching to Dish as soon as I find a good package.
If I had a choice, I’d use digital cable - the primary reason being broadband and the secondary reason being drop-outs during foul weather (whoops there goes the reception, guess it’s gonna really pour now). I can get satellite broadband but it’s not that great over a VPN (security for my job) and I’d still get the drop-out thingy. Plus the satellite broadband (direcway) is a $600 setup or thereabouts. The basic directv dish wasn’t too much of a problem to get setup.
Programming-wise I think they’re generally the same.
I’ve had Direct TV for years and like it fine, but our cable company really sucked. I like the onscreen guide, but I think cable has that nowdays? I don’t like having to pay for PBS and broadcast stations (I only have PBS right now, DTV doesn’t yet carry my local stations…), but the local cable is dropping the local broadcast stations as well. My dad had Direct TV for a couple of years but recently switched to Dish Network, his bill is less than it was and Dish had the local broadcast stations now.
You might look into Dish as well. He doesn’t notice any difference in function or quality, the on screen guide works a little different he says.
The main difference you’ll see between Dish and DirecTV will be the sports packages, so if you plan on watching a lot of sports, you should compare - for instance, we ended up dropping Dish to get DirecTV because DirecTV has the rights to offer an NFL package, which my husband wanted.
I’m biased
Cable is the way to go. Definitely.
I’m not a sports fan, and one of the first things I noticed was that I would be getting more sports broadcasts than I want or need. On the other hand, my father-in-law IS a sports fan, so it will be nice to have when he visits. And, who knows, I might develop an interest in my old age.
As to signal loss, one of my neighbors is from Michigan–he says that a heavy cloud cover in Michigan often caused a loss of signal but only the heaviest rains in Florida cause one—I don’t know what would make the difference, because we do sometimes have a really cloudy day.
I have digital cable now—the total cost of all my cable options is getting to be too much. I’ve been assured I can get comparable programming with DirecTV for less money–I guess time will tell, if we (my darling Marcie, actually) decide to go that way. My darling Marcie always gets her way, especially when I’m paying.
My DirecTV on-screen guide has spoiled me. I use it to channel surf, search titles, look up actors, schedule programs. Plus, my setup is about $30 cheaper than what the cable company quoted me for the same package.
I also get the NFL package, which has a channel to let me watch 8 games at once, or the red zone channel, which just switches to whatever game has somebody about to score.
We have DishNetowrk - have had it for about six months and will NEVER go back to cable. For about $20 more than our basic cable cost (80 channels, no digital), we get their top package (I think it’s 180 channels, plus music channels, plus a ton of others - I’d swear that we have at least 500 channels), a DVR for two televisions, and a PPV of a British show that we watch every week (that runs about $10 a month). Plus, we’ve never had an outage, it’s INCREDIBLY user-friendly, and and there has never been ONE problem with it. It’s fantastic.
My parents have DirecTV and don’t like it as much as we like our DishNetwork, though.
E.
And I meant to add - this is still $30 cheaper than what we’d pay for digital cable around here, without any frills. And we’re getting everything, plus more, that we’d get with digital cable.
First thing to do is check and see if you can get it where you are. I had a Directv installer out at my new place this weekend and there are too many obstructions.
Do you watch a lot of HDTV? We had Dish Network until earlier this year, when we switched because we could get more HDTV channels on cable, and my husband is obsessed with HDTV (no, I’m not bitter at all). So if HDTV offerings matter to you, you will want to check that out before you switch. Also, cable was a good deal for us because we also get our Internet service through them, and they offer bundling packages. Dish did not offer Internet in our area.
I swtiched from (those lousy lying motherfuckers at) Cox Cable to DircTV a couple of years ago and I am very happy. IME, DirecTV is sigificantly less expensive and somewhat more reliable than Cox was.
I have digital cable. In the past, I had both Dish Network and DirecTV. I had switched from Dish to DirecTV because at the time they had better package prices, but because of billing issues, I cancelled with them after 3 or 4 years. That was 6 years ago. I have had cable ever since.
Recently, I was considering going with Dish Network. Because of the fact that I am a previous customer, I may have to pay for all the installation expenses plus all of the equipment. However, I went online to their website to get the costs for various packages. Assuming that I could get the equipment and installation free like the advertisements show, if I got a package comparable to what I have with my cable system (over 200 channels), I would save a grand total of $5.00 per month. Of course, Dish Network doesn’t have broadband available (or didn’t when I checked about a month ago), so I would have to find an alternate broadband source. Since I use only cell phones, DSL is not an option. That leaves keeping cable just for internet which would cost an extra $10 because I wouldn’t have cable TV. The other option is wireless, which is the same monthly price I am paying now with my cable TV.
For me, it isn’t really worth switching back. But to anyone that is seriously considering it, I would really recommend the booklet they are advertising on TV that answers questions about satelite service. It is very informative.
I got DTV for the sports packages. With the sports plus package I get the NBA channel. I’m a fan of women’s basketball, and that’s the only way I can see out of market WNBA games. Also lots of Fox Regional college games. The reception is fine, I think it’s only gone out twice in 2 years, both times for less than an hour.
My absolute favorite feature is the caller I.D. When the phone rings the incoming phone number and person calling shows up on the screen. So I immediately know if I have to get up and get the phone or if it can wait. Love it!
For the DirecTV folks here – is it just me, or is the built-in scheduler buggy as heck? On Thursday, I tried to set a repeating schedule to record a show M-F from 8:30pm-9:30pm (for the missus), and it created entries for Friday 10-11, Sunday(!), Monday 7:30-8:30, etc. The only way I could get it to behave properly is to create five separate repeating entries, one for each weekday, which is simply pathetic.
Anyone else, or is it just me?
We switched from cable to DishNetwork when the cable guy told us we couldn’t expect both our analog cable inputs to have decent quality at the same time. I think we’ve had it for five years or so, and it’s been out twice for seconds. We have two dishes, the second to get TV 5 from Canada for our daughter’s French. When we got local on the dish, I retargeted the dish myself. Fantastic instructions and fantastic customer service. We got a second hookup for our daughter, and her controller is a bit better than ours.
We don’t get any premium channels, and don’t watch all that much, so I can’t say how the DVR is. For broadband, DSL works fine.
Well, its all academic; the DirecTV guy was out here and we can’t line up the dish. So, I guess I’m stuck with cable. Too bad, in a way. Thanks for all the input.